Stash update week 14 and 15

I have been trying out the Blogger app on my IPad the past few weeks, using photos taken on my phone for convenience. Some times I write a post and publish it and see it in my reader, even - but then it disappears. Since I don't re- check after the initial posting I don't always realize what has happened.

This is one of those posts. It should have been posted last Sunday, so I am updating it and combining weeks 14 and 15.

I forgot one other vacation fabric stop! On the way back south from New York, we stopped in Mt. Airy for a couple of days. We went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was lovely, and had lunch at Tuggles Gap. Part of the parkway was closed due to ice and snow, so we went back a different route and stopped in Floyd, VA at Schoolhouse Fabrics.

The fabric shop is in a schoolhouse that last graduated a class in 1939. But, it is essentially the same as it was then. (photo from the FloydBlog.com)

The classrooms on the main floor, are filled with fabrics and notions. One whole classroom just for Novelty fabrics and another just for fleece blanket fabric in pictorial panels? On the upper floor, the music room was full of wools and fleeces (the stage had some cutting tables). Another room was full of Christmas and patriotic prints. Downstairs had a huge room with everything you might need for a wedding dress or reception decor and a smaller room with silk flowers and other 'fancy' fabrics.

Their prices were very reasonable ( I would guess they had 30 or 40 different Kona solids at $5.79/yd).

I bought two half yards of novelty cottons with vintage pattern envelope pictures.

Luckily, they had 'man chairs' for The Mister as it was not quite as much fun for him...

Fabric added this week -1 yards
Fabric added YTD - 41,58 yards
Fabric used this week - 0 yards
Fabric used YTD - 37.18 yards
Net Stash change - +4.4 yards

I did add some fabric at the retreat, but I will have to tally that up I'm the next report!

Shool House Fabrics - three floors of fun!

My school house treasure!

You can see more reports here...

Small Town New York City

Monday, I spent the day with my only child and her husband who both took a day off to hang with me in their neck of the woods - which is Brooklyn, NY. We ate at tiny restaurants and visited interesting, small shops, and saw a flower show at Macy's that helped brighten up a rainy snowy day.

It occurred to me that some of the places we went seem more like the way "main street" America used to feel than anywhere I have been in a long time. Small shops that specialize and do not have corporate plan-o-grams for the merchandise and restaurants that have a menu based on how the cook feels like cooking, and what is available, and - about half the shops we were thinking of visiting were closed on Monday, which is very small town reminiscent.

Not Macy's, of course. There was a crush of humanity there that was Black Friday-esque in hustle and bustle!

We went to Soho and visited boutiques that represent the designers whose names go on the work of my hosts, and we went to Purl. (More about the shopping another time.) We also went to Brooklyn General, the only fabric store that I know of that has bolts of 'new old stock' vintage cottons and Barkcloth for sale, along side the latest organics and Liberty fabrics.

We ended the day at the Brooklyn Farmacy for a very late (for me) lunch and huge ice cream sundaes.

Tuesday morning, I took the subway, then a bus and then a train to get back to Philadelphia and The Mister and we headed down the road again. We are in Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground, which The Mister picked so we could add the Maryland sticker to the map of the US on the outside of the camper. (He would add a sticker for every state we pass through, but I say we have to have spent the night)

More adventures and visiting ahead of us, then the long drive home. Kind of looking forward to it, though..,

Brooklyn General - a wonderful shop!

Brooklyn Farmacy - famous for egg creams

Stash Update - Week 12

In the past week, The Mister and I have traveled to Myrtle Beach, then to Philadelphia and now I am in New York, visiting with Ms A and her husband.

I have been very conservative with my souvenir fabric purchases - up to this point. This week I am counting the 2.5 yards I bought in Myrtle Beach. The five yards I bought today, at Ikea in Philadelphia, will go on next weeks report.

On Tuesday, my SIL and I took a little road trip to Lumberton, NC and visited T and J Liquidators. I saw an ad on Craigslist that listed liquidated clothing factories and retail stores. It was a very fun place to poke around in. (the photo shows but one of the four buildings full of sewing supplies!)

I bought some very long zippers, a thread stand, a treadle belt and some ripstop ribbon, but no fabric Most of the fabric was home dec, but they did have some rolls of the fabric that men's pj's are made from.

Tomorrow, I am going to Brooklyn General and to Purl, so I will likely have negative progress for a YTD total next week.


Fabric added this week - 2.5 yards
Fabric added YTD - 32.33 yards
Fabric used this week - 0 yards
Fabric used YTD - 37.18 yards
Net Stash change - 4.85 yards

Fabric Souvenirs

I ran a few errands with my SIL, yesterday. First stop - post office to send Easter candy to her Grands. Second stop - quilt shop.

It was a cute little shop with very friendly staff. I exercised great restraint and only bought two really cute vintage-y panels, a $2 fq and a 50% off remnant for a total of 2.5 yards.

Less than the price of dinner out (and I cooked dinner in) so that totally rationalizes the purchase!

Photo conditions are less than ideal but will have to do...

Just a catch up -

My camera is on vacation without me, so just a note to fill in the latest gap.

June has been quite the whirlwind! After enjoying the family reunion/birthday celebration for my Dear Aunt, The Mister and I headed down the road with Ms A to Kansas City. Ms A and I visited with her Grandmother and her dad and the three of us ate our way around the area, visiting our favorite restaurants.

After Ms A left to return to her life in the big apple, The Mister and I headed North for the Great Lakes Navel Training Center. Number one Granddaughter was on track to graduate from Basic Training there, the following week. (Her graduation was postponed, after she developed shin splints from over training.) The original date would have allowed me to attend, but as it was pushed back, I had to return to my life in the desert.

The Mister hung out on the shores of Lake Michigan for a few days in Illinois and I was home alone! I took my sewing machine with me on vacation to finish the gift for Dear Aunt, so I found myself with a weekend to sew with no machine. And, I have a project that I need to take on my next vacation - the wedding in Mexico, which is now 6 days away. (I leave in four days - the hectic continues!)

I am making a camera bag insert for my purse. I was coveting one of these, but I decided to try to make one myself, after seeing some great bags at Nordstrom's Rack on screaming deal clearance. I searched for a tutorial and came up with this one but I made it smaller to accommodate my purse dimensions. I don't have extra lenses or other camera stuff, so the smaller one will work for my camera, I think.

I looked on Craigslist to see if I could find a used sewing machine, but I didn't find any that I thought were worth fooling with, so I ended up buying an old used Singer that had been a trade in at a sewing machine shop. It is not as old as my other old Singers. This one is vintage 1975, and I have added zigzag to my stitch capabilities! It may go to charity after the featherweight returns, but, if I can find a corner to store it in, I may hold onto it. You just never know when you might need to zigzag...

I am almost finished with the main part of the camera insert, I just have to make the adjustable dividers which won't take long.

Since the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild meeting will be the week after I return, I also want to get my 'inspiration block' for our bee finished this weekend. I was hoping to follow Cola's inspiration to make a swell passport sleeve (she used this tutorial). I am thinking that will have to be given up on in the interest of time.

The Mister is on his way home - he stopped in Henderson (Nebraska, dang it!) last night, so I still have two days of leaving my sewing things strewn about the place without being in anyone's way.

We will only have a couple of days to catch up with each other before I leave again. I hope July holds a bit less activity!

Hodge Podge and Happy Independence Day!

Hello....hello...still there?

I wouldn't blame you for giving up on me! Posting only six times in May and twice in June makes me almost embarrassed to show my face around here!

I have been busy and distracted this past month, but things are coming together and I am starting to feel more like we have a 'new normal'. So, I will not promise to post regularly, but that is my intent!

I thought I would try to catch up a bit, but first, a patriotic nod to the holiday, by way of vintage textiles:

This is one of several vintage fabrics that I have listed in Atomic Sisters etsy shop. I have trouble coming up with 'non-drapery' ideas for large motif fabrics, so I am de-stashing a bit. I just cannot envision using these, so I decided to pass them on to someone else.

In other news:

This past week, The Mister and I took a road trip to the central coast of California. I had some business there and we decided to make a tiny holiday out of the maiden voyage of our new(er) camper. My work was in Santa Maria, so that was the base, but we spent most of Friday exploring some of the country side.

We started with a trip to Solvang for lunch, then explored the wine country around Santa Barbara. We really were not interested in wine, though, just the scenery.

We stopped at the Fess Parker winery, but passed on the coon skin hat wine bottle toppers!

This lavender farm was tucked in amongst the vineyards. I saw it on the map and with a minimum of wrong turns, we found it!

It was so beautiful and just alive with bees and butterflies. We stopped at the little shop and rang the bell, so someone could come out from the house to sell us wonderful soap.

Originally, we thought about spending the long weekend in California, but decided to drive back Saturday and have a weekend at home. The kitties were very glad to see us when we returned. They are a little nervous about all the packing, etc. that has been going on!

Wait until they find out that we are all going to live in the camper...

Easter Bunnies and Chicks - Sort of...

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter!

The Mister and I went 'away' for the weekend. Not very far away, just camping at Lake Mohave, about 90 minutes from home. We went to Cottonwood Cove, which is about 30 miles below Hoover Dam. We had a very nice time, although The Mister didn't get to fish, as they do not allow fishing in the cove and it was too windy to hike out to the point.

So, we did a little exploring, played some dominoes and just hung out.

And I stitched up some of my favorite characters from the 1948 Simplicity "Storybook Trims"!

Thank you again, Martha! I have really enjoyed these designs!)

This time, I followed the photo as a guide to the colors, and I am loving the blue flower! I put a penny in the photo for scale.



I had not done this motif, before, due to the color changes. Since I was not putting this on a onesie, I decided that multiple knots would not be an issue.



I finished six designs, with six more still to complete. I couldn't wait until all the embroidery was complete to see how they would look in a little quilt.

I went back and forth, trying to decide what fabric to use. I finally settled on this piece of blue and white. I only had a 'fat eighth', so I wasn't sure that would be enough, but I even have a 2" x 9" strip left over!

I think the finished size of the quilt will be about 12" x 15". I plan to use white for the backing, probably a flour sack, since that is what I used for the stitcheries. I hope I can find something perfect for the binding, but I have some time, since I think that I will hand quilt this little project. Since it is small, I think it will be manageable, and certainly a portable project. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Progress

I think I have turned the corner on feeling punk. I have managed to stay up later than 7:30, this evening, so that is great progress! Sleep is very restorative, but it takes up a lot of time when you do it 12 hours a day!

I have still not unpacked my carry on, or taken the photos out of the camera, but I am looking forward to doing it, so that is progress, too. Our weekend plans for a short road trip were cancelled at the last minute, so I hope to have time (and energy) this weekend to do a bit more than eat and sleep. Maybe even check some things off the list. (There is always a list...)

I brought home way too many bulbs from the Philadelphia Flower Show. I had to leave a sweater and a pair of shoes behind with our hostess to make room for them in my bag. (They were winter shoes and my heaviest sweater and we are past that point in our desert winter, so I needed the bulbs more than the clothes.) I have two different amaryllis, three hyacinths and about a dozen paper whites for growing in the kitchen. It is a good thing I don't use that counter space for cooking!

Spring is bursting out, here. Some of the flowering trees are done with the flowering and are on with the leafing out. My iris are looking like they are just a couple of weeks away from blooming and daylight savings time is almost upon us.

Spending a week in the Eastern time zone, plus my recovery sleeping habits this week may turn out to be just the thing for easing into the time change. I hope so, because I am really looking forward to some longer evenings. Living on the far Eastern edge of the time zone, means early sunrise, but early sunset. Even on the longest days in the summer, the sun is down by 8:30.

Next week, I hope to have the sunlight and the energy to walk the 'long way' home from work! Here I go, dreaming big!

Home again...

...but under the weather.

The wedding was nice and the reception party a success.

We had smooth travel to Philadelphia and New York and a great time seeing the 'sights'.

I think I took a few photos of interesting things, but I haven't gotten them out of the camera, yet.

I am having VERY lazy day, so that I can store up enough energy to get me through a back to work day, tomorrow.

I will try not to be such a slacker for very long!

The Jumping Off Point!

After a very busy weekend of family and festivities, most of the guests have gone home, the rest will leave tomorrow. And so will I!

After the last big meal of the weekend at my house, we finally got a few folks together to take some photos at 'the sign'. We were experimenting with artsy effects and this was our 'jumping' attempt. We were all pretty tired and silly...

In a few hours, we will be getting up to go to the airport to begin the next phase of vacation!

Staying up too late...

In the last two days, Ms A and I have spent about 15 hours sorting Legos and putting sets together. Many of those hours were spent long after we should have been in bed!

She has always enjoyed Legos and there were some fun sets in the 90's. One series called "Paradise" is all pink and gray and white with people vacationing at a beach resort, riding horses and surfing.

Pirate ships was another fun theme. What's not to love about tiny Lego 'pieces of eight' and peg leg Lego pirates with parrots?!

We also have some Harry Potter sets, undersea sets, and some generic sets.

At one time, they were all separated, but they got co-mingled at some point. So, we are putting them together so we can then take them apart and store them more efficiently.

Another wonderful thing about the Internet - you can find the instructions to put together Lego sets from 1979 (and maybe before, but the oldest set we have is from '79. A space station set that was originally passed down from older nephews.

The living room looks like a tornado with sorted piles for charity donation, trash and 'things to keep, but we haven't decided where'.

Since today is the halfway mark of my vacation, I suppose we had better make some progress on restoring order. I don't wan't to have to do it all myself after she leaves!

On Vacation!

Today is the official start of my vacation! Up to today, it was just weekend (and I worked a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday), so it doesn't count. Ms A and I have a lot of boxes of her things to sort through (and hopefully, reduce the amount that needs to stay...)

And we have places to go and things to do.

Yesterday, we went to the zoo. (I forgot the camera, so no photos.) It is officially the Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park. It is very small, just three acres, but it enjoys a good reputation in zoo circles and has several animals from the San Diego zoo, on loan. We saw lots of birds, three big cats - a lioness, a lynx and a puma, one chimpanzee, some wallabies and a half dozen or so other mammals that I had not heard of. Also, a pair of sea otters, two alligators and assorted other reptiles.

The weather here is kind of like very early spring in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and the peacock boys were in full parade! The girls did not seem to be impressed, but all the humans were. Peacocks feathers are soooo gorgeous. They have such amazing iridescence!

Other things on our list to do:
Go to the shopping mall at the new city center and admire the public art
Find China town and see what it has to offer.
Eat at In 'n Out.
Pick out a new paint color for the Rangoon Red, (for now) Falcon.
And, hopefull, take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill!

I used to buy t-shirts...

...as souvenirs. Eventually I realized that t-shirts are not flattering to anyone (thank you, "What Not to Wear") and should only be worn to the gym (where I never go). I do allow myself to wear them when I am working in the garden, but I really don't have a garden, so mostly they sit on the shelf in the closet, waiting for the day that I might have a garden once again.

So, this is my latest souvenir!

Yarn, fat quarter fabric assortment and embroidery transfers.

I love exploring fabric and craft shops when we travel. Whenever I find an independent fabric and/or craft store, I always look for things outside the usual inventory that I find at Michael's and Jo-An.

This time, I found Beverly's Fabric & Crafts in Santa Maria, CA. Next door was Betty's Fabrics and next door to that was Betty's Yarn Shop! I got the fabric at Betty's (She had really lovely quilt fabrics as well as other specialty fabrics) and the yarn and embroidery transfers at Beverly's (which was more of a crafting store, but they did have some nice quilt fabrics, too.)

I always admire the fat quarter assortments that I see at quilt shops, but the price per yard, always keeps me from indulging. I am such a bargain hunter, it is hard for me to pay full price for things, and it seems like they are never really 'on sale'. But, as a souvenir, it was easier!

You can't really tell where I have been by looking at them, but they will remind me when I use them!

Where we have been, the past few days, is on a road trip -The Mister and The Mister's youngest Miss - C, and me. When she comes to visit, we always try to go see something that we haven't seen before. It gives us an excuse to get out of town for a few days and helps to make her visit more interesting (we hope...)

This week, we headed to the ocean!

We took a 'three hour tour' around the Channel Islands National Park. We were hoping to see some whales, but they are apparently unreliable this time of year. We did see lots of sea lions, sea otters, and lots of birds.

This is Anacapa Island, the smallest of the chain and the closest to the harbor. Some of the folks on our boat got off to spend the day. It looked pretty desolate to us....

'Naked Ladies' or 'Surprise Lilies'

We also went to Hearst Castle at San Simeon. We took a tour and saw lots of fabulous things. It was the second time there for the Mister and I. There are four different tours and we have taken the first and second. I hope we get the opportunity to go back and see more. I did take lots of photos, but they impress on everyone that they are NOT TO BE PUBLISHED!! Mine really don't show the full splendor of the place, anyway. These surprise lilies were blooming in a field at the old village of San Simeon. I love surprise lilies!

The Mister and me at the W.R. Hearst State Beach

It was nice to get out of the furnace and spend some time near the ocean!

Adventure to the Middle of America!

We are preparing to start our vacation tomorrow morning. The Mister will be up and three and tapping his foot, waiting for my alarm to go off at five. We hope to be on the road before 6am.

Imagine going on vacation in one of these!